Facing Bad Tropes with Little Lady Potter - (Harry Potter AU, SI)
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AN: So, imagine 'Facing Bad Tropes with Naruko-chan' but with Harry Potter stuff. Prepare to be reminded that these two fandoms are not that different...
November 1st 1981. It was a cold late evening in Privet Drive, a suburban street in Little Whinging, in the county of Surrey and... near to London.
Being reborn close to twenty years ago had made me wonder initially if I had been reincarnated in the past, but as I grew up in my particularly small household, I learned that I was not in a normal situation. Not when my mother told me she was a witch and that I, Joshua Stevens, due to not receiving the Hogwarts letter at the age of 11, was confirmed to be a Squib.
I was reborn in the world of Harry Potter, and I had not a single ounce of magic in my veins. This was, indeed, a malding subject for me for several years, but as I enjoyed the overall highs and lows of having a muggle father with his own tire-making business that I worked at as soon as I was out of high school, and a magical mother that would take me to check Diagon Alley from time to time, I would say that I got myself in a rather comfortable life.
And that's when, in a random London's pub, I got drunk and started to think about what to do with things. I mean, I had a reliable job and I had enough money saved on the side to not have troubles for a decade, I couldn't use magic but... I had knowledge. Both in regard to the mundane and magical societies. I could start tinkering around stocks, but I had no clue on how to do that just yet, so, in my drunken state of mind, I contemplated actually doing something about the plot.
I mean, I knew things were going to be alright, but maybe I could have done something to alleviate the limited abuse Harry Potter would have gone as early as he was dropped on the front port of the Dursley Family's house. And this thought stuck long enough that I decided to actually move to Privet Drive and get myself cozy right by the Number 6.
Once I had all I needed prepped up, I just waited the next three years and kind of stood awake for November 1st as I saw Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall chat over the crib holding the little 'Boy-who-lived'. It felt surreal how it was to watch a 'move-like' scene from a window's perspective, I couldn't hear anything but I imagined the scene from the first movie unfold as Dumbledore lowered the crip by the porch and then disapparated with his Deputy Headmistress.
And I waited to, you know, see the scene that had Vernon pick up the kid. Ten minutes passed, and nothing happened- twenty minutes passed, and I was out of the door with a heavy jacket since it was bloody cold and I had realized a glaring issue with that scene: it was November 1st, it was now night, the lights at Privet Drive 4 were all off, and Dumbledore had not rang the fucking doorbell.
The baby was meant to survive for hours in this weather? I don't know what sort of BS was behind this logic, but I tried to lie to myself that magic would keep the kid warm until he got picked up. And yet, as I finally stood in front of the little crib, I saw those rosy cheeks stand out over the worrisome pale face of the child, and those timid green eyes that had dried up any tears left in the recent hours- I may have done the next thing out of instinct as I took the crib, turned around and brought it to my house.
Logically-speaking, for the sake of the plot, I could have rang the damn bell and let the story go as intended. But I then felt the sudden weight of condemning the kid to that kind of situation when I knew that wouldn't have been right, and as I took him home, I realized that 'he' was a 'she', that the black hair was actually red, and that 'Harry' was actually 'Rose'.
The discovery shocked me a little bit, and it was further worsened by the fact that the letter Dumbledore left on the child's crib. I had thought I would have found some effort from the headmaster to try and have the Dursleys behave, but I was shocked when the letter contained some of the vilest suggestions yet. Not only Dumbledore wanted Rose to be kept away from anything magical, but he warned the family that 'accidental magic was very common and that they could be hurt if they didn't keep the girl tame'.
These words shock me further as Dumbledore then went on to give ideas on how to handle some 'bad behaviors' and to 'keep her magic stunted'. I was aghast after that read, but I wasn't spared any moment to think as Rose decided to wake up in that moment and crave milk.
Stuff I didn't have in the flat, and I had absolutely no clue if I could find around in any store due to not knowing their shifts. To avoid any unwarranted adventures into the cold November night with the poor thing on tow, I swallowed the bitter pill and called for help.
Mom and Dad, kind souls that they were, arrived within half an hour. Mom was a driven woman as she took care of the emergency feeding while dad took me to the side and interrogated me on the situation. After all, I had just told them that I found a baby in the cold, and that I had nothing to feed her with.
"She was left there by... Dumbledore? Are you sure that was him?" I heard mom ask with a hint of shock mid-feeding, surprised by my recollection.
"You have his pictures around, it was him, and I think he was being accompanied by the witch with the hat, I think that was-"
"Minerva McGonagall," Mom guessed right as I nodded at her, then looking down at the child and appearing shocked. "T-This means the little one is Rose Potter."
"Yeah, that was written on the letter in the crib and..." I paused, not needing to feign any disgust with the next words. "Mom, be honest with me. This Dumbledore guy... is he truly good?"
This prompted a 'what do you mean?' which was then answered by the letter himself. Dad was stunned silent, mom was horrified and, through this sort of situation, it became clear that Rose was not going to be subjected to just verbal abuse. And that this was no longer a mere case of Canon Harry Potter. This world had gone rogue on the canon plot and we were deep in AU territory. And as far as I could sense, we were dwelling into some unflattering tropes for Dumbledore at the moment.
"I will keep her," I announced, holding the once more asleep baby girl in my arms. "I can't turn her to monsters."
"Would it be even possible?" Dad asked, turning to mom as we both noticed her pensive look. "And I don't mean just by a magical side, but the British legal system. There has to be paperwork that would dictate who has guardianship over her and-"
"It can be done," Mom assured with a confident tone, but she appeared with a grimace. "But we will have to inquire some barristers in Knockturn Alley."
Which occurred the next day as I personally took care of that while mom took care of little Rose and dad was off to buy some baby supplies I may be in need of. And the visit to Knockturn Alley was quite... instructive. I had to first convert some Pounds in 'Wizard Money' in bulk, and I was glad that I had more than enough to pay the fees of the barely legal process I was pushing for.
The legal consultant was shrewd on the topic, and yet he seemed to pick up that I had enough cash knowledge to keep his noisy inquiries to a minimum as I signed all the papers needed to get partial guardianship over little Rose. Her name was changed thus to Rose Stevens, but I was excluded from interacting with her vaults, her family's properties, and whatever shit she got from 'defeating Voldemort' and being Sirius Black's goddaughter.
Despite not being told what was inside those vaults, I knew there were a few from the Potter Family, same from the Black Family, one from the Gaunt Family, one from the Peverell Family and... one from the Pendragon Family.
So yes, if I had any doubt that I was in an AU version of HP where all trashy overused tropes existed... well, I no longer had any of those.
As I got back home and got lectured by mom on how to tackle this sudden parenthood, I started my new life as a single dad for little Rose. And while I had no way to take care of her scar as of yet due to how complex of a situation it was, I could still get the first steps of her childhood in these conditions done right.
After my parents left, I focused on integrating these lessons I got from mom into action through the next few days, and I was soon finding myself a bit depleted at night and deciding against going to sleep in bed. I just lied on the couch, the little snoring 'chatterbox' that was Rose on my chest. She was quite the 'chatty lady' by my mother's own admission whenever she was awake, and I could tell myself she liked to 'talk' with her baby talk whenever I was around to listen to her.
I would play silly about it, get her to giggle a few times and... know that things weren't going to be as simple depending on how 'malicious and evil' the trope for Dumbledore was supposed to be. Maybe it was a case of 'Senile' Dumbledore too, which would be definitely helpful in the long run, but for the next few years I would live with the worry that he may appear at my doorstep, cast Obliviate on me, and then take Rose from me.
That was scary, but I was relieved to see none of that happening-
Instead, the next 'issue' of parenthood with Rose started when she got into trouble at St. Grogory's Primary School, the main school in Little Whinging and... the place where she first clashed with her cousin, Dudley.
AN
So, here we go again, but I am going to lay down some big rules: 1) Rose ain't getting shipped with MC; 2) Some other characters have their genders swapped; 3) I will be righteous and vicious with the usage of bad tropes so... welcome back to another trip down those cringe years.